Morning Glory Muffins

These muffins are so tasty; I doubt you will even realize they are healthy. I was home on a snow day a while back and had a strong desire to bake. I found carrots and apples, and I remembered these heavenly muffins I used to buy at the bakery. I had never made them so I scoured the Internet and found a recipe from King Arthur Flour.

I ended up omitting a few ingredients to suit our tastes. I will mark what I left out, in case you want to incorporate those things. I made these muffins specifically for the freezer. I love to have homemade breakfast items to pull out and take to work. The great thing about freezing muffins is that they thaw quickly. I just pull one out in the morning and pack it in my lunch bag and it is thawed out when I get to work.

½ cup raisins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups carrots, peeled and grated
1 large tart apple, peeled, cored, and grated
½ cup walnuts
3 large eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ cup orange juice
½ cup sweetened shredded coconut (I left this out)
1/3 cup sunflower seeds (I left this out)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin tin.

In a small bowl cover the raisins with hot water and set them aside to soak while you assemble the rest of the recipe. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, spices, and salt. Stir in the carrots, apple, coconut, nuts, and sunflower seeds, if using. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and orange juice. Add to the flour mixture, and stir until evenly moistened. Drain the raisins and stir them in. Divide the batter among the wells of the pan (they’ll be full almost to the top; that’s ok).

Bake for 25-28 minutes, until nicely domed and a cake tester inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes in their pan on a rack, then turn out of pans to finish cooling.

This post linked to www.lifeasmom.com

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